Aston Villa's most valuable players

Aston Villa spent three straight seasons in the Championship between 2016 and 2019 before returning to the Premier League for the 2019-20 campaign.

Dean Smith's side have found it difficult to compete during stages of the current season and are currently 19th in the Premier League table.

They are only two points off 17th-placed Watford with a game in hand, though, and will still believe that they can escape the bottom three, providing that the season is allowed to resume.

Villa seriously splashed the cash last summer following their promotion to the Championship, but it remains to be seen whether the club will still be in the top flight for the 2020-21 campaign.

Here, Sports Mole takes a look at the club's most valuable players.

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Jack Grealish's presence at the top of this list is not a surprise. Indeed, the 24-year-old has been in excellent form for Villa during the 2019-20 campaign, contributing nine goals and eight assists in 31 appearances.

Manchester United continue to be credited with an interest in the Villa captain, and it is difficult to imagine him lining up for Smith's side next term even if they manage to stay in the Premier League.

Wesley - out for the season with a knee injury - is second on the list with a valuation of £27m. The Brazilian has only managed five Premier League goals this term but cost in the region of £22m from Club Brugge; even so, the South American's valuation is somewhat of a surprise.

Tyrone Mings is third on the list with £25.2m, while John McGinn is fourth with £18m. There is certainly an argument that McGinn is Villa's second-most important player after Grealish, although the fact that the Scotland international has not played in 2020 due to an ankle injury has surely impacted on his valuation.

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The bottom four players on this particular list are all goalkeepers, including Pepe Reina, who is on loan from AC Milan. Matija Sarkic is at the very bottom with a valuation of just £90,000, and the 22-year-old has never played a first-team match for Villa, most recently spending time on loan with Livingston.

The lowest-ranked outfield player on the list of 29-year-old midfielder Henri Lansbury, who has been restricted to just nine Premier League appearances this season. Back-up full-backs Ahmed Elmohamady and Neil Taylor are also understandably low, but Anwar El Ghazi might feel that he deserves higher than £9m, having contributed six goals and seven assists in all competitions this season.

Matt Targett's position of sixth on the list is somewhat of a surprise, although the 24-year-old has made 20 Premier League appearances this season, contributing one goal and two assists in the process.

Frederic Guilbert has also been a key player for Smith this season, but the 25-year-old's valuation is only £8.1m, lower than the likes of Marvelous Nakamba, Trezeguet and Douglas Luiz.

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Full list:

Jack Grealish £34.2m

Wesley £27m

Tyrone Mings £25.2m

John McGinn £18m

Douglas Luiz £18m

Matt Targett £11.7m

Mbwana Samatta £10.8m

Bjorn Engels £10.8m

Anwar El Ghazi £9m

Trezeguet £9m

Marvelous Nakamba £9m

Frederic Guilbert £8.1m

Kortney Hause £7.2m

Ezri Konsa £7.2m

Conor Hourihane £6.75m

Tom Heaton £5.4m

Danny Drinkwater (loan) £5.4m

Jota £4.05m

Borja Baston £3.6m

Neil Taylor £3.15m

Ahmed Elmohamady £2.25m

Keinan Davis £2.25m

Henri Lansbury £1.35m

Orjan Nyland £1.35m

Jed Steer £1.5m

Pepe Reina (loan) £720k

Matija Sarkic 90k

Sports Mole has used figures from Transfermarkt for the purposes of this article.